The Infinite Playground

In his final work, a visionary game designer reveals how a surprising range of play-based experiences can unlock our imagination and help us capture the power of fun and delight. Bernard De Koven (1941–2018) was a pioneering designer of games and theorist of fun. He studied games long before the field of game studies existed. For De Koven, games could not be reduced to artifacts and rules; they were about a sense of transcendent fun. This book, his last, is about the imagination: the imagination as a playground, a possibility space, and a gateway to wonder. The Infinite Playground extends a play-centered invitation to experience the power and delight unlocked by imagination. It offers a curriculum for playful learning. De Koven guides the readers through a series of observations and techniques, interspersed with games. He begins with the fundamentals of play, and proceeds through the private imagination, the shared imagination, and imagining the world—observing, “the things we imagine can become the world.” Along the way, he reminisces about playing ping-pong with basketball great Bill Russell; begins the instructions for a game called Reception Line with “Mill around”; and introduces blathering games—Blather, Group Blather, Singing Blather, and The Blather Chorale—that allow the player's consciousness to meander freely. Delivered during the last months of his life, The Infinite Playground has been painstakingly cowritten with Holly Gramazio, who worked together with coeditors Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman to complete the project as Bernie De Koven's illness made it impossible for him to continue writing. Other prominent game scholars and designers influenced by De Koven, including Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, and members of Bernie's own family, contribute short interstitial essays.

A play-centered invitation to experience the power and delight unlocked by imagination.Bernard De Koven (1941-2018) was a pioneering designer of games and theorist of fun. He studied games long before the field of game studies existed. For De Koven, games could not be reduced to artifacts and rules; they were about a sense of transcendent fun. This book, his last, is about the imagination: the imagination as a playground, a possibility space, and a gateway to wonder. The Infinite Playground extends a play-centered invitation to experience the power and delight unlocked by imagination. It offers a curriculum for playful learning.De Koven guides the readers through a series of observations and techniques, interspersed with games. He begins with the fundamentals of play, and proceeds through the private imagination, the shared imagination, and imagining the world--observing, the things we imagine can become the world. Along the way, he reminisces about playing ping-pong with basketball great Bill Russell; begins the instructions for a game called Reception Line with Mill around; and introduces blathering games--Blather, Group Blather, Singing Blather, and The Blather Chorale--that allow the player's consciousness to meander freely.Delivered during the last months of his life, The Infinite Playground has been painstakingly cowritten with Holly Gramazio, who worked together with coeditors Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman to complete the project as Bernie De Koven's illness made it impossible for him to continue writing. Other prominent game scholars and designers influenced by De Koven, including Katie Salen Tekinbas, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, and members of Bernie's own family, contribute short interstitial essays. ContributorsIan Bogost, Stephen Conway, Adriaan de Jongh, Elyon De Koven, Rocky De Koven, Mary Flanagan, Gonzalo Frasca, Tracy Fullerton, Holly Gramazio, Catherine Herdlick, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, Colleen Macklin, Celia Pearce, Sebastian Quack, Lee Rush, Katie Salen Tekinbas, John Sharp, Tassos Stevens, Akira Thompson, Greg Trefry, Douglas Wilson, Zach Wood, Eric Zimmerman

'Infinite Creator Drive Is way beyond a great read'. It's an epic journey.' The Story makes for an awesome travelling companion for those surfers and holiday makers requiring a great adventure of the mind and spirit. K.J.Gordon has taken the beauty of Australia, the World and the Universe and presented not only a great read, it propels a world embracing free energy. And yes there are consequences of Biblical proportions. The story has several plots some shallow and funny some deep and thought provoking. Infinite Creator Drive is an interesting space journey of discovery - As well as being thoroughly entertaining. L.Haydn Gully June 2015 REVIEW Infinite Creator Drive is a revealing romp through space. There is an abundance of plausible technology and future incite from the author K J GORDON. And there are aspects which really make the reader stop and think. The concept dealing with superior alien life is very original and shows a depth in marine science and biochemistry which must remain un-discussed as not to spoil the surprise and or shock. The addition of DNA characters of legend add authentic aspects to the ‘life' discussion as it flows through the entire story line. And indeed, not without a twist in the tail. The story of Infinite Creator Drive has a depth of unusual twists and is not so much pitched as sprayed across the imagination. The reader needs to take stock of relative time as the journey hurtles through existing science on its way to find a new humanity. One needs the seatbelts well tightened for this journey, as well as safety gear for the powerful riding of surfing waves in Oz and on an amazing planet called Endev. The future tech of DNA manufacture, rolling through the subplots, is rather compelling as we are just discovering these future concepts for real. And one wonders at the authors incite. Here is a new science of science fiction written in the non-publishable genre of Aussie Fly Boys meet the most famous man on the planet, Science Fiction. The mind boggles at the ploy. It will never work? The fly boys, being surfer bums with attitude, while the most famous man of his time is an aboriginal man from Alice Springs. He invents anti-gravity. And yes the love interest would be worth meeting for real as her unordinary charm captivates in unusual ways. Lastly, there lies an interesting undercurrent of mental instability and aspergers twinkling lightly through the sub plots as well. The chapter on emotional balance as aspects of understanding Karma will stay with the reader long after they have shed a tear as the end draws near. Pyramid meditation will be required. Infinite Creator Drive is ironically well ahead of its time, past present and future. And the concept of who or what the Infinite Creator Drive is will check the reader's thought processors. And very lastly, the imagery will test the horizons of those prepared to take a journey that pumps the heart in its pace and yet brings a tear in emotive depth. Definitely too long for a movie but what a ride that would.

An insider’s look at the power of comedy to effect social change From Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show and Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act, to Issa Rae’s Insecure and Corey Ryan Forrester’s Twitter feed, today’s multi-platform comedy refuses to shy away from the social issues that define our time.As more comedians lean into social justice activism, they help reshape the entertainment industry and offer creative, dynamic avenues for social change. The Revolution Will Be Hilarious offers a compelling insider’s look at how comedy and social justice activists are working together in a revolutionary media moment. Caty Borum invites readers into an expanding, enterprising arena of participatory culture and politics through in-depth interviews with comedians, social justice leaders, and Hollywood players. Their insights shed light on questions such as: What role does comedy play in helping communities engage the public with challenging social issues? How do social justice organizations and comedians co-create entertaining comedy designed to build the civic power of marginalized groups? And how are entertainment industry leaders working with social justice organizations to launch new comedy as both entertainment and inspiration for social change? Through this exploration, Borum argues that building creative power is crucial for marginalized groups to build civic power. The Revolution Will Be Hilarious positions the rise of social justice comedy as creative, disruptive storytelling that hilariously invites us to agitate the status quo and re-imagine social realities to come closer to the promise of equity and justice in America.

Due to computers' ability to combine different semiotic modes, texts are no longer exclusively comprised of static images and mute words. How have digital media changed the way we write and read? What methods of textual and data analysis have emerged? How do we rescue digital artifacts from obsolescence? And how can digital media be used or taught inside classrooms? These and other questions are addressed in this volume that assembles contributions by artists, writers, scholars and editors such as Dene Grigar, Sandy Baldwin, Carlos Reis, and Frieder Nake. They offer a multiperspectival view on the way digital media have changed our notion of textuality.

A fun, dazzling exploration of the strange numbers that illuminate the ultimate nature of reality. For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac, or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths led to strange new understandings of the ultimate nature of reality. But what are these truths? What are the mysterious numbers that explain the universe? In Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, the leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star Antonio Padilla takes us on an irreverent cosmic tour of nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics, offering a startling picture of how the universe works. These strange numbers include Graham’s number, which is so large that if you thought about it in the wrong way, your head would collapse into a singularity; TREE(3), whose finite nature can never be definitively proved, because to do so would take so much time that the universe would experience a Poincaré Recurrence—resetting to precisely the state it currently holds, down to the arrangement of individual atoms; and 10^{-120}, measuring the desperately unlikely balance of energy needed to allow the universe to exist for more than just a moment, to extend beyond the size of a single atom—in other words, the mystery of our unexpected universe. Leading us down the rabbit hole to a deeper understanding of reality, Padilla explains how these unusual numbers are the key to understanding such mind-boggling phenomena as black holes, relativity, and the problem of the cosmological constant—that the two best and most rigorously tested ways of understanding the universe contradict one another. Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them is a combination of popular and cutting-edge science—and a lively, entertaining, and even funny exploration of the most fundamental truths about the universe.

Leave all opinions, judgments, and beliefs at the door... Prepare to stretch your perceptions about “reality” and join psychic medium Keli Adams on a brief, sometimes humorous, always thought-provoking roller-coaster ride. Keli will take you through some of the bizarre and terrifying events of her life and her gradual acceptance of her unique abilities—gifts she’s learned to use to help others in profound ways. DROP the BS and BE offers a simple yet powerful way to shift your perceptions and change your life instantly. By releasing all the BS (belief systems) and choosing to simply BE, Keli will show you how to “play” with quantum physics in order to manifest amazing things in your life! Quantum play keeps the ego away. The last section of the book contains the SOELI Transmissions—the Source of Energy, Light, and Information...or “God.” Keli gets out of the way and simply types information straight from SOELI. These transmissions are pure, raw, and unedited. Learn to live your own truth with a childlike sense of trust, wonder, curiosity, grace, gratitude, and love. BE instead of DO. Allow yourself to get “unstuck” and out of your head, DROP the “Belief Systems” and BE one with divine mind...a space of playful joy, healing, miracles, and unlimited possibility. About the Author: Keli Adams has been studying the mind/body connection, other dimensions and states of consciousness, quantum physics, and alternative healing for over thirty years. She is a psychic medium, interspecies communicator, paranormal researcher, medical intuitive, healing facilitator, hypnotherapist, Reiki master/teacher, Silva graduate, grief counselor, psychometrist, labyrinth facilitator, and author. DROP the BS and BE is her seventh book. She has been a flight attendant for a major American airline since 1986 and lives somewhere, nowhere, and everywhere with her small herd of cats. Keli offers intensely fun, loving and powerful 1-day workshops called “ReunionZ,” where she teaches you how to become your own medium to communicate with loved ones/pets any time you like. For more information about Keli, her books, or services, visit www.keliadams.com.

At a time where the tipping point for education seems to be a perpetually delayed expectation, despite widespread consensus and shared awareness to reform school practice for a completely new paradigm, change can actually be initiated in the real life school setting, by means of strategic curriculum interventions that target exposing students directly to the principles of the school of the future. Extreme Curriculum Makeover: A Hands-On Guide for a Learner-Centered Pedagogy explores how to develop a learner-centered pedagogy through specific strategies that can be implemented in any classroom, at any grade level, and that can transform the traditional learning environment into one where the students themselves acquire the tools, the skills, and, more importantly, the motivation to become lifelong learners.